Whew! It has been a while since I've updated! It has been a rather bad year, in my personal life, so I haven't kept up with many of the plans I had, and even abandoned some that I had started. For example, the broccoli and brussels sprout seedlings I had started, well, they never got planted. I didn't do a fall crop for lettuce, and I didn't remember to get my sugar snap peas in, either. Tomato Lane caught the blight, but I just figured out what it was, so I was unable to treat it early. It really didn't look like the pictures of blight, until this week. So, I'll be going to get something to treat it with tomorrow. It'll be late, but it's too late to pull up the plants to stop the spread, as the whole row has it. Thankfully, the blight has not made it onto the fruit, so I'm still bringing in a harvest. Also, the weather is dipping back down below 90, so the plants are starting to set flowers again. The trellises, by the way, are phenomenal. The plants are nearing the arch, and it's so cool to not have to worry about the plants falling over due to their height. Production has been awesome, and I've canned several jars of stewed tomatoes, and I've given a few of the tomatoes away to friends as well. This fall I plan to build boxes around each of the trellises. This will serve to both help in the eventual winter conversion to a greenhouse, and to keep a deep layer of mulch on the plants, and to help contain the soil. I'll also continue to treat for blight throughout the rest of this season, and all of next year, even if no symptoms are present. I'd like to try to get this stuff killed off. The marigolds went absolutely bonkers. I've never seen such huge marigold plants in my life! They are really doing their job, too. Hardly any of the tomato plants have been chewed on by bugs since the marigolds really took hold. The wheat aisle experiment was a success, even if I didn't bring in the crop. I didn't take enough time and care to prepare the bed, so weeds overtook my wheat and made it impossible to harvest with any reasonable effort. So, I mowed the whole thing down and covered it with black plastic. This fall, I'll take the plastic up, build boxes over the entire row, and set fire to the interior. Then, I'll scrape it up, and set fire to it again. After that, I'll re-cover it with plastic until next spring. At that time I'll put down new dirt at a depth of 6 inches, and hope that the grass doesn't come back. So, no crop, but I learned a lot. Success! The Bee's Friend flowers didn't attract very many bees. It may have been that the flowers weren't planted with enough density to attract them, but I don't know. I'm planning on replanting them next year, and making them more plentiful. Perhaps I'll throw them out in the surrounding field instead of the garden, though. In any event, that patch was mowed down and covered in black plastic as well. It will be developed in the same manner as the wheat row, with the exception that part of it will get turned into walkway. The Emerald Gem muskmelons only produced one fruit per plant (user error?), and did not sprawl very much. I think they could be planted in the garden proper next year. Of course, they all ripened while I was out of town on business, so I did not get to try any of them. However, a friend of mine harvested for me while I was away, and he said they were wonderful. I'll plant some more next year! The Criss Cross watermelons are doing fine, but have not yet ripened. The Blacktail Mountain watermelons are also doing well, but have not yet ripened. A volunteer squash plant came up by the back door, and it went nuts. I need to figure out what it is! Next year, I think I'll plant the watermelons up there, instead of on the trellises. I like the trellis, but it is a lot of work to keep the weeds out from it. Perhaps if I planted them in a box, rather than straight in the ground it would have been easier, but I think I prefer to not have to coax a plant to grow somewhere it really doesn't want to go. The tomatoes go wherever you push them, but the melons really do seem to have an opinion about where they want to be. The zucchini did not do well at all. I thought they were a vine variety, but they weren't. So, they were immensely crowded, and did not yield much. To make things worse, I had several power failures this summer, so the crop that I had harvested, blanched, and frozen were all lost when the deep freeze defrosted. The corn was planted too closely together. SFG says that you can put 4 per square, but I think that is too close. Perhaps two, but not four. The crop was dismal. The beans are still growing, so it is unknown how the final result will be. I remain hopeful. The eggplants have only set one fruit so far, and I am very excited to harvest it. I hope that the plants will set some more fruit, though. Its lack of production could probably be link directly to the soil. They are growing in the box where I got the soil mix wrong. The carrots did great, and I have planted again for a fall crop. They are all coming up nicely. The beets are planted for a fall crop, and they too look good. The lettuce did great, but I did not replant for a fall crop. The cucumbers are awesome. We've been making dill pickles 1-2 times a week, and have over a dozen jars now. It was my first attempt at pickles, and they turned out great! I will definitely keep this variety of cucumber in my garden. As you can see, the cucumbers did not need the entire trellis to grow upon, so next year I am going to put some beans on the other side. I'll probably also interplant some peas in early fall, before the beans are ready to be planted. At the trellis by the corn and squash, I will also plant beans next year. I'll probably just build little 1x4ft boxes around base not in the garden, rather than a full 4x4 box. I may expand in that direction eventually, but I doubt that I will next year. For the wheat aisle and the Bee's Friend spaces, I'm not sure what will go there next year. I'm sure I'll have lots of fun dreaming up the schematic as the cold wind starts blowing and we get snowed in week after week!

I'm guessing at least 10 years old. I've had her at my house for a number of years and am not sure how many years she was sitting in the greenhouse before that. For some reason I never noticed it. It was stuck back in a corner with a bunch of tools. I know that I hadn't taken care of it while it was in the greenhouse. I'm not sure if our greenhouse manager was caring for it or not. He just kind of shook his head when I asked him about it. He's very good at lapsing into "no entienda el inglés" when he doesn't want to talk to me. lol I don't know if a narrowed trunk at the soil line is normal but it sounds like it could be a problem when it gets big. I'd probably fill it in with something, just be careful that it doesn't rot the trunk. Let me know if you find a way to get it to bloom. Karyn

Thanks, AJ. I've tried cutting off the flower on my Ladyfinger and the fruit did turn out looking good. Perhaps it's because of their own poor fruit quality to begin with. i haven't tried cutting the blooms of my Raja Puri yet. Maybe I'll give it a try and see how things fare. I've heard both versions, cut and not to cut. Will have to experiment more to be more sure.

Me and my mom at Disney world last month. And another pic from Disney World last month with me, my daughter Alyssa, Alyssa's friend Liz, and my mom. And last but not least, me and my mom and my favorite mouse in the whole world.